Christopher Okigbo's "Heavensgate"

In the poem "Heavensgate", Christopher Okigbo portrays the picture of the return of an African to the native, post colonization. He stands before the Mother Idoto , a symbol of the oilbean, tortoise and the python. Okigbo had a special affinity towards his maternal grandfather, a priest of Idoto, an Igbo deity personified in the river of the same name that flowed through his village. Later in life, Okigbo believed that his grandfather's soul was reincarnated in him; this "water goddess" figures prominently and frequently in his work. Immersed in traditional values, he is shocked at the drastic change that has overcome the land. He tries "leaning on an oilbean" but cannot. He waits for the traditional heavensgate but fails to find it. On the other hand, he is like a prodigal son who has lost all his riches-his authentic culture and tradition. Only a "watery presence" or faint remembrance of the 'presentness of the past" prevails. Nobody heeds to the speaker's cry, and it is lost in the dark waters.

His remaining in solitude is more colourful-it as colourful as orangery, as colourful as the African rites and rituals. However, he gradually begins to feel alienated and finds himself being immersed in the 'SILENT FACES' of the colonized crowd. He becomes one among the 'long black column of ants' devoid of any identity. Ants live in communities, and have no essential individual identity. The present African generation find themselves aping the Western culture, parading a sophisticated air-they engage themselves frequently at formal meetings 'behind the bell tower' or 'in the hot garden'. In such an existence everything leads to the same thing or "all the roads meet". The festivity that was hitherto colourful has become monotonous and given the label 'black'

Even during the time of worship, the poet is aware of the 'mask' over his face. It is not ancestral, but something imposed. The speaker perceives an objective view of himself as the 'newcomer'. As the poet stands on the bridge, he hears "the laughter of the waves". Water has the power of dissolving, diluting or easily mingling with anything that it comes across. The poet unlike the water below cannot readily welcome this change. Water also can easily 'weigh' anything: it can easily displace an equal amount of burden. The poet finds himself standing above the waters where the tide flows only "under his feet". He longs to immerse himself in its depth where all the burdens are light and one 'floats' in mere oblivion."